Friendship breeds art exhibition

A work by Pierre Klossowski from the Jean-Paul Jungo collection. Exhibition au Musée cantonal des beaux-arts, Lausanne

A friendship between an art collector and a painter is the inspiration for a summer exhibition that has just opened at the fine arts museum in Lausanne.

The exhibition is an unusual show with an unusual title – “Rémy Zaugg – Portrait of a friend, Jean-Paul Jungo”.

When the museum asked Jungo, who lives near Lausanne, if he would exhibit his collection of contemporary art, his reply came as a surprise. He agreed, but said he would like his friend Rémy Zaugg to be the curator.

Although Zaugg has curated exhibitions in the past, he is better known as an artist. His approach to the exhibition was to present it as a portrait of Jungo which goes beyond contemporary art.

For example one room is like a library, with hundreds of books collected over many years by Jungo. Another has been transformed into a cinema for the screening of classic movies.

Both books and the cinema are among Jungo’s enthusiasms, but as the exhibition shows there is no doubt which branch of the arts he likes the most.

“Portrait of a friend” really comes into its own in one particular picture room. All four walls are covered with sketches and paintings from the Jungo collection. The blanket effect might be considered by some visitors to be almost overwhelming, but they cannot fail to be impressed by the trouble taken by Zaugg in the hanging of the pictures.

“It is wonderful for me to see my collection as I have never seen it before,” said Jungo.

The exhibition is at the fine arts museum until October 1.

by Richard Dawson